Hinduism in Brief

To speak of Hinduism as though it were a single, unified tradition is
misleading if not altogether inaccurate. Hindus themselves refer to their
religion as sanatana dharma, or "eternal truth," indicating their
belief that it transcends temporal origins. What we call Hinduism today
is an amalgam of at least two distinct traditions forged over centuries
and derived from two dissimilar cultures. And, like most religious
traditions, it has continued to evolve and change long after those two
spiritual currents had merged.

The roots of an indigenous religious culture in the Indus Valley of
northern India go back at least to 2700 BCE, when the two centers of Indus
civilization that have been uncovered so far, at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro,
are believed to have crystallized. They were probably inhabited by the
Dravidian people, an ancient Australoid race, who may well have been in
place thousands of years earlier. Whoever inhabited the land appears to
have worshipped both a male deity similar to the later god Shiva,
associated with the lingam, or phallic stone, and a Hindu, Shakti,
somewhat akin to Mother Nature, associated with the yoni, or ring-shaped
stone representing the female genitals. Shiva is pictured in ancient
engraved seals as a yogi meditating in the presence of animals.

Somewhere between 4000 and 1200 BCE, the Indus was invaded in successive
waves by Aryans ("noble ones"), a group of nomadic warrior clans who
probably came from northern Iran or Baluchistan (now part of modern
Pakistan), and who may have originated in the grassy steppes north of the
Black Sea between the Carpathian and Caucasus mountains. The Aryans,
purportedly bigger and fairer than the aboriginal inhabitants of the
Indus, invaded with horses and chariots and overran the indigenous
cultures.

The Aryans brought with them a religion based on animal sacrifice and
ritual purity through ablution with water, an ancient scripture called the
Rig Veda, and the Sanskrit language. A priest class called
brahmans maintained the rituals and scriptures and formed the upper tier
of a caste system with four major divisions, which the Aryans used to
maintain control as they assimilated the natives. But it is also likely
that some aspects of the indigenous spiritual culture remained outside the
pale of this Brahmanic or Vedic system, specifically the group of people
known as shramanas ("strivers"). These were wandering ascetics who
may have practiced the earliest forms of yoga, along with meditation and a
nonviolent way of life, quite distinct from the ritualistic animal
sacrifices that made up much of Brahmanic practice. (The term
shramanism is sometimes applied to any non-brahmanical Indian sect
or school, including Buddhism and Jainism, and is linguistically connected
to the word shaman.)

The forms of Hindu philosophy and practice that have appealed most to
Westerners since it was introduced here over a century ago derive from the
yogic rather than the Brahmanic tradition, and are not necessarily the
same as those that are followed by the majority of India's population.
The many Indian masters who established followings in the West since the
change in immigration law in 1965, such as Swami Satchidananda, Swami
Muktananda, Mother Meera, and others, have taught various forms of
meditation and yoga, with little or no emphasis on the sectarian worship
of Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti that characterizes most Indian practice of
Hinduism, especially in the small villages that account for much of
India's population.

The Indian Religion

Indian spirituality is so vast, encompasses such a long span of time and
so many scriptures, and is practiced in such a wide variety of ways, that
it's hard to point to any one manifestation with assurance and call it the
definition of Hinduism. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity, Islam,
Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, or Zoroastrianism, Hinduism is not founded
on the life and teachings of a single charismatic figure such as Buddha,
Jesus, or Muhammad. We can't name one or even several key individuals
without whom the religion of India would not be recognizable as Hinduism,
notwithstanding the fact that Indian history -- and modern India -- is
replete with brilliant and saintly teachers, sages, philosophers, and
reformers of all kinds.

Perhaps what defines Hinduism miore than any one individual, however, is
the country of India itself, a land in which not only certain towns,
rivers, and trees are held sacred, but also cows, snakes, rats, and
vultures. Of India's approximately one billion residents, about 830
million, over 80 percent, are Hindus. (The remaining population is
predominantly Muslim, about 120 million, with some Sikhs, Christians,
Parsis, and others.) Although Buddhism was born in India and flourished
there for more than a thousand years, it is no longer a significant force
in Indian life. Hinduism also survived the invasion of various Islamic
dynasties, who imposed Islam on much of India from the 13th to the 18th
centuries. The predominantly Muslim areas of India were separated out
into the new nation of Pakistan, divided into East and West Pakistan in
1947. Following a war of independence in 1971, East Pakistan was reborn
as Bangladesh.

The Basics of Hinduism

The four Vedas

The term Veda ("science" or "knowledge") refers to the orthodox, revealed
sacred scripture of India as a whole, which is divided into four
individual scriptures: the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and
Atharva Veda, each of which is quite ancient. They are sometimes
also called Samhitas ("collections") because they are gatherings of
various hymns, prayers, and spiritual lore. The oldest, the Rig
Veda, is said to date back to at least 1500 BCE. Each Veda has
attached to it a set of more recent scriptures, known as Brahmanas,
Aranyikas, and Upanishads. The Vedas are conventionally believed by
Western scholars to have been composed and passed on orally between
1500-600 BCE, and put into writing sometime after 1000 BCE. Yet most
scholars acknowledge that the origins of the beliefs expressed in the
Vedas are shrouded in mystery. Some Indian historians date certain hymns
as far back as 4000 BCE or earlier.

The lengthy Vedas were each the responsibility of various brahman
families, who collected and passed them down among themselves. Based on
many internal references to sections of the Vedas and Upanishads that no
longer exist, scholars have deduced that large amounts of the original
scriptures have been lost.

The four castes

Also known as varna ("color"), caste traditionally divides Hindus
into four major classes of society (with hundreds of sub-castes in
between).

brahman: priest-philosophers and scholars

kshatriya: warrior-rulers, politicians, civil authorities

vaishya: merchant-agriculturists, free peasants, artisans

shudra: workers, servants, unskilled laborers.

Below these are the outcastes, the so-called "untouchables," who were
considered to be outside the caste system and were required to perform the
most menial tasks in Indian society. Mahatma Gandhi tried to change the
way Indians perceive outcastes by calling them harijan, or
"children of God." It is essential to understand that these are societal
rather than religious distinctions, and were imposed by the invading
Aryans on an indigenous population that was darker-skinned. Each caste
carries with it a specific svadharma, or set of responsibilities.

The Four Stages of Life

Although the caste system separate those devoted to priestly duties from
warriors, political leaders, merchants, and householders, Hinduism also
seeks to integrate spiritual and metaphysical principles with the cycles
of human life. It divides life into four distinct stages through which
each Hindu male of the three upper castes passes. These are considered
ideals, however, not necessarily followed by all or even most Hindus:

brahmacharya (student). After initiation (upanayana), which takes place at age 8 for a brahman boy, 11 for a kshatriya, 12 for a vaisya, each is expected to spend a minimum of 12 years living in the home of his guru. His life during this time is austere and celibate, given to mastering yoga and other spiritual disciplines and reading and studying the Vedas. In modern India, the boy usually stays at home but takes instruction from the family's pandit, or Vedic scholar.

grihasthya (householder). The next phase of life includes marriage, raising a family, and earning a living. This is a time for the enjoyment of earthly pleasures and recognition for success while carrying out one's responsibilities to the community. It ends traditionally with the birth of one's first grandchild.

vanaprasthya (hermit). After fulfilling social duties and insuring the continuation of the family name, the Hindu is free to retire to the forest to meditate and seek spiritual wisdom. Living in a small hermitage with or without his wife, who may join him, he devotes his time to gaining a fuller understanding of his spiritual nature while still performing basic Hindu rituals.

sannyasin (wandering mendicant). In the final stage the seeker leaves behind his hermitage and all possessions except his staff and begging bowl, to pursue the final goal of life: mukti, or liberation from the endless round of rebirths.

The Four Aims of Life

dharma (duty). Dharma can be translated as "truth,"
"righteousness," and "religion," and all of those meanings coincide in the
sense of one's moral and spiritual duty.

artha (material gain). Contrary to popular opinion, the Hindus do
not look askance at success, wealth, or possessions, but merely seek to
keep them in their proper place. One of the duties of a householder, for
instance, is to begin each day pondering how to improve both dharma and
artha.

kama (physical and sense pleasures). Hindus also embrace the
enjoyment of earthly pleasures, including sexuality, food, music, and the
arts, during the second stage of life.

moksha (release or salvation). The fourth goal parallels the
fourth stage of life, representing the end to which all Hindu life
aspires.

The Six Darshanas

The darshanas are philosophical systems meant to be complement
rather than compete with each other. They incorporate philosophy,
theology, psychology, philology, physics, meditation and other esoteric
spiritual practices. Together they form the six schools of orthodox Hindu
thought that had evolved by the end of the 4th century, but only a few of
them are still active in modern Hinduism, since they developed out of each
other, tending to make previous darshanas somewhat obsolete. They are
traditionally arranged in three pairs, each divided into sub-schools.

Nyaya and Vaisheshika cover logic and physical principles.

Sankhya and Yoga deal with Hindu metaphysics and
psycho-physical exercises.

Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta. Purva-Mimamsa explores the
theology of Vedic sacrificial ritual. Vedanta (originally called
Uttara-Mimamsa) is the complex system of philosophy that rules most of
Hindu religious thought today, both within and outside of India.

The Seven Chakras

The traditional Hindu system of belief encompasses energy centers known as
chakras, which serve to accumulate, assimilate, and transmit
psychological, physical, and spiritual energies. When these areas of
interconnection between body and spirit are purified or opened up through
the process of yoga (sometimes called raja yoga or kundalini yoga), the
adept may experience an enormous infusion of energy, and, in some cases,
enlightenment. The chakras are often pictured as lotus blossoms or
spinning wheels (in Sanskrit, chakra means "wheel"; the English
words "cycle" and "cyclone" are derived from the same root), and each
chakra corresponds to a location in the physical body. (A similar system,
with different terminologies, is employed by some schools of Buddhism and
Taoism.)

The chakras are aligned along a central subtle energy channel called the
sushumna, which is connected to two crisscrossing channels called
the ida and pingala in a pattern that is strikingly similar
to the double helix of DNA. Together they carry the life force, or
prana, to various places in the body. Neither the chakras nor
these channels (or nadis) are visible but work in the sheathes of
subtle energy that surround and interpenetrate the body. The ida, or left
channel, carries the breath from the left nostril to the base of the spine
and is associated with lunar, cooling, feminine energy. The pingala, or
right channel, carries the breath from the right nostril to the base and
is associated with solar, fiery, masculine energy.

The first, or muladhara, chakra lies at the base of the spine,
where the kundalini energy is pictured as a serpent coiled between
the anus and the genitals (kundalin is Sanskrit for "she who lies
coiled," and kundalini yoga is a process of raising the serpent power).
The second, or svadhisthana, chakra corresponds to the genitals;
the third (manipura) corresponds to the navel and solar plexus; the
fourth (anahata) is located near the heart (although usually placed
either in the middle of the chest or closer to the right side); the fifth
(vishuddha) corresponds to the throat region; the sixth
(ajna) is located slightly behind and above the space between the
eyebrows, or cavernous plexus (the so-called "third eye") and corresponds
to the pineal gland; and the seventh chakra is located just above the
crown of the head, although it corresponds to the pituitary gland. It is
called the sahasrara chakra, from the Sanskrit word for "thousand,"
referring to the "thousand-petaled lotus of enlightenment." In addition,
there are six minor chakras which are rarely mentioned.

Western teachers have developed elaborate theories of the chakras and
practices for cleansing them to unblock the flow of vital energy within
the body, and some teachers, including Caroline Myss, posit an 8th chakra
located an arm's length above the head.

The Purpose of Life:Karma and Reincarnation

"There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all,
beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is
the light that shines in our heart."

Chandogya Upanishad, 3.13.7

The six darshanas and four yogas ultimately have the same goal:
moksha, or liberation from the endless cycle of death and rebirth
known as samsara. This may be accomplished by identification of
the individual soul, or Atman, with the AbsolutIe Godhead, called
Brahman. Most Hindus accept that liberation must be achieved over
a succession of many lifetimes, and that how one is reborn in each
subsequent life depends on the quality of one's actions in this and
previous lifetimes. Rebirth is controlled by karma, a Sanskrit
word meaning "deed" or "action" that refers both to individual deeds and
to the accumulation of good and bad effects resulting from one's actions
in this or previous lives. Karma can also refer to the overall pattern of
cause and effect that is a universal principle, often colloquially stated
as "what goes around comes around."

The Buddha largely accepted the concepts of karma and reincarnation that
are essential to the Hindu worldview, but he understood them somewhat
differently, and those differences are part of the essence of Buddhism and
part of what makes Buddhist belief different from Hinduism.

The Sacred Scriptures

Hindu scripture is traditionally divided into two basic types, shruti and
smriti. Shruti ("that which is heard") consists of the four Vedas
(known collectively as the Veda, made up of the Rig Veda,
Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda, plus the series of
texts appended to each of the Vedas, called Brahmanas,
Aranyakas, and Upanishads.

Smriti ("that which is remembered") is composed of traditional texts not
as directly inspired as shruti, including the Dharma Shastras
(legal and ethical texts), the Puranas, and the folk/historical
legends known as the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Somewhere between shruti and smriti are the sutras, which are
composed of terse statements difficult to comprehend without an attached
commentary. The Vedanta Sutra of Badarayana, for instance, is much
less important than the commentaries on it by Shankara and Ramanuja, which
defined the phiosophy of Vedanta.

The four Vedas were handed down orally for thousands of years, and
although the earliest hymns in the Rig Veda go back to at least
before 1500 BC and possibly as far as 4000, the oldest written version in
existence dates from only the 14th century. The Vedas were not popular
texts but were reserved for the brahman caste, and related largely to the
various sacrificial rituals around which early Hindu practice revolved.
The Rig Veda, for example, collects 1,028 hymns to various gods, to
be chanted at sacrifices (mainly animal). It is composed of 10 sections
or books called mandalas ("cycles"). Most of the hymns were addressed to
Indra, Agni, and Soma, and were transmitted orally by scholars called
pandits, who memorized long texts in Sanskrit. The meaning was less
important than getting the sound exactly correct, based on the principle
that certain sound combinations, or mantras, could effect powerful changes
in the sayer.

The Yajur Veda contains mantras for use in sacrifices, some with
explanations of their meaning and proper use in ceremonies. The Sama
Veda is largely a revision of hymns and verse from the Rig Veda
arranged for singing rather than chanting, and is generally of interest
only to scholars. The Atharva Veda is a collection of spells,
charms, curses, and incantations not related to the sacrifice, for casting
out demons of disease, creating love potions, or seeking success,
sometimes using sympathetic magic. Having more of a literary than a
religious significance, it was the latest collection to be edited, but its
contents are thought to be very ancient.

Brahmanas are prose addenda to the Vedas. As rituals became more
complex, the Brahmanas were needed to explain mysteries and
symbolism, often in the form of fanciful allegories. The word "brahman"
once referred to the supernatural power inherent in incantations, and by
extension came to mean the impersonal Source of the universe. Later, the
name Brahma was applied to one of the three chief gods (a role taken over
from Prajapati), and "brahmana" indicated a priest (sometimes spelled
"brahmin") in charge of the incantations. The Brahmanas were
composed beginning around 900 BCE.

Aranyakas are supplements to Brahmanas, mystical reflections and
descriptions of significant rites detailed in the Vedas, which often treat
sacrificial details as symbolic of esoteric truths.

The Upanishads take up where the Aranyakas leave off, forming the
most mystical level of teaching in the Veda. There are 108 canonical
Upanishads, of which 13 are significant. Generally dated from c. 700-300
BCE, they may actually have been composed during a wider span of time,
perhaps from 1200 BCE - 200 CE, in approximately this order:
Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Kena, Aitareya, Taitiriya, Kaushitaki,
Katha, Mundaka, Shvetashvatara, Prashna, Maitri, and Mandukya.
They sought to move beyond the ritualistic, sacrifice-oriented religion of
the Brahmanic period to an emphasis on the kind of realization that could
be gained only through intensive self-examination and meditation. These
lines from the Mundaka Upanishad make the point:

Ignorant fools, regarding ritual offerings and
humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher
good. After enjoying their rewards in heaven acquired by
good works, they enter into this world again. . . . But
those wise men of tranquil minds, . . . contemplating that
God who is the source of the universe, depart, freed from
impurities, to the place where that immortal Self dwells
whose nature is imperishable. (1.2.10)

Like the Old Testament, the Vedas often aim to appease a vengeful Deity
with sacrifices and hymns of praise, whereas the Upanishads are
closer in spirit to the New Testament; in both cases a more mystical,
love-oriented theology adds to and supplants old ways of thinking and
believing. And like the New Testament, the later Hindu writings also
contain expositions on personal ethics and conduct in light of the newer
teachings, often in the form of short texts called sutras.

The word sutra means "thread," and the sutras generally consist of
short, aphoristic phrases or sentences strung together like beads on a
string. Among other things, the sutras set down for the first time
ordinances on the four stations of life. For instance, although in the
past Hindus practiced polygamy (men were allowed up to four wives) and
polyandry (in the Mahabharata, the central female figure, Draupati,
is married to five brothers), monogamy became the norm.

The first and most important smriti is the Manu Smriti (also called
Laws of Manu, or Manu Samhita) composed between 200 BCE and
100 CE. Perhaps more important in the daily lives of Hindus both past and
present, however, are the Puranas ("ancient narratives").
Collections of legends, myths, and moral precepts bearing on everyday life
for the common Indian, they may be less sacred than the Veda but no less
essential. Finalized between the 4th and 12th centuries, there are 18
principal or Mahapuranas of ancient lore, and 18 secondary or
Upapuranas, divided into those concerning worship of Brahma, Shiva
and Vishnu. The most famous and traditional are the Vishnu and
Bhagavata Puranas.

An enormous role is also played in Indian scripture by two heroic sagas
known as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which are more
influential on the Hindu mind than any other writings. The
Mahabharata, four times as long as the entire Bible, contains
material reaching back to 600 BCE, but was updated as late as 500 CE with
many revisions and additions. Although it is attributed to Vyasa, also
called Krishna Dvaipasebyana, Vyasa means "collector," and was often used
by anonymous rishis -- the seers who wrote much of ancient scripture, and
who didn't feel that their identity was important. The Mahabharata
was added to over centuries by brahmans who wanted to mix religious
information with dramatic action. The most significant interpolation is
the Bhagavad Gita, or "Song of the Lord," which contains much of
the theology of later Hinduism.

Overall, the Mahabharata is about warring dynasties, but is also
people with wise and holy kings, saintly rishis and forest sages, romantic
trysts and supernatural interventions. A key figure is Krishna, an avatar
or incarnation of the god Vishnu; becuase Krishna had a history of human
births, he was, like Jesus, both human and divine.

The Ramayana is even more popular than the Mahabharata, and
only about one-fourth as long. Rama is the seventh avatar of Vishnu, who
also appears as a mighty hero and the heir apparent to the kingdom of
Ayodhya. To win the hand of the lovely Sita, he has to bend the
intractable bow of Rudra, much as Odysseus did in The Odyssey.
When Sita is kidnaped by the ten-headed demon king Ravana and taken to Sri
Lanka, she is ultimately rescued by Rama with help from an army of
intelligent monkeys led by general Hanuman. The monkey king gifted with
supernatural powers and a knowledge of healing herbs later became a
popular Indian god. Some scholars see the Ramayana as an
allegorical account of the Aryan migration into India and the conflicts
between agrarian natives and nomadic invaders. The Bhagavad Gita,
probably written by the third century BCE or later and set within the
Mahabharata, is India's most important religious text, and was the
first to be translated into European languages (by Charles Wilkins in
1785). The setting is the field of the impending historic Battle of
Kuruksetra, as Arjuna, the warrior son of Indra, is questioning having to
kill his own cousins and teachers in battle. His friend Krishna, the
avatur of Vishnu who also serves as Arjuna's charioteer, offers his
response in 18 chapters of verse that essentially promote the joys of
selfless action. The leading argument is that bodies can be killed, but
not souls, and because warfare is Arjuna's dharma -- the caste duty of a
kshatriya -- he must perfom it. The Gita teaches "motiveless
action," the practice of focusing "on action alone . . . never on its
fruits." The text defends the caste system, but also introduces several
tenets of later Hindu thought: the doctrine of the three gunas, the
triangle of forces that make up all objects and beings; the basics of Yoga
and Sankhya; and the impersonal God-head called Brahman.

The Kama Sutra, or Aphorisms of Love, by Vatsyayana (c.300
AD) is best known for its graphic descriptions of sexual techniques, but
also includes advice on how to dress and how to be a successful man about
town.

Yoga

Yoga in the West is sometimes thought of as a series of postures, perhaps
some deep breathing, and a diet of yogurt and tofu. But that's only one
small aspect of one particular kind of yoga in India. In a wider sense,
yoga (from a Sanskrit word meaning "union") can refer to any spiritual
system or path that aims to harness the senses in the search for God, and
any dedicated practitioner can be called a yogi. In the Hindu tradition,
there are four major types of yoga:

Jnana yoga is the path of knowledge, leading to God through
intellectual analysis and the ability to tell the difference between the
limited self of apparent thoughts and feelings and the infinite Self that
resides in the background and witnesses the actions of the limited self.
This yoga relies on the mystical knowledge contained in the Upanishads.

Karma yoga is the path of work, of getting to God by doing good --
but without attachment to the fruits of one's work.

Bhakti yoga is the yoga of love and devotion as embodied in the
Bhagavad Gita (devotion to Krishna), and probably has more adherents than
all the other yogas. Its key practices include japa, the constant
repetition of God's names, and kirtan, or communal singing,
chanting or dancing to honor God. The best known example of bhakti yoga
in the West is the International Society of Krishna Consciousness,
better known as the Hare Krishnas.

Raja yoga is the "royal" yoga, also called "eight-limbed"
(ashtanga) yoga, as codified by Patanjali in his Yoga
Sutras. That book outlines eight sets of techniques governing both
external activities and, finally, the inner workings of the mind:

Sectarian Worship of Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti

Although the Indian religion that most Westerners are familiar with
revolves around yoga, meditation, and a number of prominent gurus, the
practice of religion in india tends to be much more closely linked to
sectarian worship three primary deities. Hinduism in the Upanishads
focused on Brahman, an abstract Godhead who could be discovered and
contacted through a variety of mystical practices. But the increasing
dominance of bhaktism -- devotion to a specific personal god or
avatar, such as Krishna -- eventually began to swing the pendulum toward
the worship of specific personal manifestations of the Godhead. Three
such manifestations eventually became dominant: Vishnu, Shiva, and
SDhakti.

By the 7th century, the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu became the
stronghold of Shiva worship, or Shaivism. Shaivites, or Shaivas, view
Shiva, whose roots go back to the pre-Aryan Indus culture, as the creator,
maintainer and destroyer of the universe, and worship him alone. The
phallic lingam, usually in the form of a smooth oblong stone, has
been a symbol of Shiva from the earliest days of pre-Aryan civilization,
possibly derived from a more ancient fertility cult; it is still the main
object of Shiva worship today. The Dance of Shiva, portrayed in numerous
artworks, represents his maintenance of cosmic order through energy and
power. Shiva also apears as a great yoga adept seated in the lotus
posture, cradling his trident, symbol of his mastery of the three main
channels of the central nervous system.

In the provinces of Bengal, Assam and Orissa, the worship of Shakti
probably derived from the ancient cults of the Mother Goddess. Shakti is
the feminine counterpart to male deities, representing their "power" or
"energy" embodied in the female form, such Kali or Lakhshmi. Its
adherents worship Shakti as the force that maintains the universe and
makes all life possible. Shaktas worship various manifestations of Shakti
or Devi (the Mother Goddess), who can be beneficent, as in Uma and
Parvati, or destructive, as Durga or Kali, the fierce black goddess whose
form drips blood and is adorned with snakes, human skulls, and dismembered
arms.

Shaktism is closely identified with Tantra, a fundamental spiritual
practice of Hinduism based on a group of texts in which the divine energy
represented by the female aspect of a god is personified as a goddess.
The Tantric approach is more body-oriented than most orthodox Hindu
teachings, and matter is not shunned as an illusion. Tantra is
customarily divided into the so-called right-handed and left-handed paths,
the latter involving the "Five M's": madya (alcohol), mamsa (meat), matsya
(fish), mudra (parched grain and symbolic hand gestures), and maithuna
(sexual intercourse). Over time, the physical use of the 5 M's gave way
to psychophysical practices such as Kundalini Yoga, but some Tantric
groups still follow the esoteric practices in secret.

The largest modern Hindu sect, Vaishnavism, is based in the north of India
(although members of the three major sects now live side by side).
Vaishnavas worship Vishnu (Hari) in his ten incarnations, but primarily as
Rama, Sita, and Krishna. The focus of Vaishnavism is generally on
image-worship, and devout Vaisnava households keep an image of Vishnu or
one of his avatars in the home. Vishnu's divine body is depicted with
four arms, resting on Shesha, king of the serpents, or riding on the great
bird Garuda. He resides in Vaikuntha, his paradise, located on Mount Meru
or in the northern ocean.

Hinduism in the West

Hinduism was introduced to the U.S. by Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the
disciple of the great Bengali saint Sri Ramakrishna (1836-86). In 1893,
Vivekananda attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago and gave
an influential address that contradicted the stereotype of Hindus as
superstitious and intolerant. His picture of Hinduism was somewhat
idealized and avoided reference to the strongly sectarian nature of most
Hindu practice in India. For many years, his vision of Indian religion as
an idealistic practice of yoga, meditation, and transcendental philosophy
was embraced by Western intellectuals and spritual seekers. With the
recent influx of Indian immigrants has come a greater awareness of the
wide range of Hindu beliefs and practices that the immigrants have brought
with them.

Vivekananda established the Vedanta Society in the U.S. in 1894, and
later in India in 1897 he founded the Ramakrishna Mission, considered by
some to be the most important modern organization of reformed Hinduism.
It is unique in India in that it is involved in social welfare concerns
such as building and running hospitals and orphanages, a result of
cross-pollination by Western members. The Order's motto reads, "For one's
own liberation and the welfare of the world." There are currently 13
Ramakrishna and Vivekananda Vedanta Centers around the U.S. run by mostly
American-born monks of the Ramakrishna Order of India.

But Vivekananda was not the only Hindu to attract followers outside of
India. After the imigration laws were revised in 1965 to allow a greater
influx of Asians, a number of other Indian gurus began to make their way
here. And Westerners traveled more frequently to India to sit at the feet
of the great teachers and mystics to be found there. They include:

Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950). Sri Aurobindo was a member of the
Indian nationalist movement fighting for independence from Great Britain.
He claimed that the voice of the departed Swami Vivekananda was
instructing him during meditation. Later Aurobindo became an ascetic and
founded a yoga ashram in Pondicherry that is still active. His doctrine
of the evolution of the soul from lower to higher levels of spiritual
consciousness resembles that of the Jesuit archaeologist Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin.

A French woman named Mira Richards (1878-1973) became Aurobindo's
spiritual companion and helped to spread his ideas. Known as The
Mother, she ran the ashram after Aurobindo began a period of silence
and seclusion that lasted until his death. In 1968, The Mother founded a
model global village called Auroville, based on principles espoused by
Aurobindo, which is still in progress.

Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950). Famous for asking himself
continuously, "Who am I?" He also asked visitors the same question until
they were reduced to silence.

Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963/4). Founder of the Divine
Life Society taught the ancient Indian science of ayurvedic medicine and
meditation. His disciples included Swami Satchidananda and Swami Vishnu
Devananda.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952). Coming to the U.S. in 1922, he
became famous as the author of Autobiography of a Yogi (1946),
founded a Yoga Institute in Los Angeles in 1925, and established the
Self-Realization Fellowship (S.R.F.), to teach his path of Kriya Yoga.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986). Although he was chosen by the
leaders of the Theosophical Society as the avatar of the 20th century and
had a worldwide following, Krishnamurti rejected attempts to found a
church around him. He refused any formal following, speaking and writing
for the general public, and settling in Ojai, California.

Ma Anandamayi (1896-1982). A leading female saint of India who
became enlightened without reading scripture or studying with a guru.

Swami Muktananda (1908-1983). Practitioner of Siddha Yoga, the way
of the Siddhas, or semidivine beings mentioned in the Puranas, and
emphasized awakening the kundalini. In America, he created the SYDA
Foundation, based in South Fallsburg, New York.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (b. 1911) Founded (and copyrighted)
Transcendental Meditation, or TM, based on ancient meditation techniques.
After the Beatles went to study with him in 1967, he became instantly
famous--even after they disowned him less than six months later. He
became one of the leading exponents of ayurveda in the West, and his
students include Deepak Chopra.

Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002). Disciple of Swami Sivananda who
gave the invocation at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and later founded
Satchidananda Ashram -- Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia, where he
teaches Integral Yoga.